Interview with Stephen Bingham, leader of the Cambridge Philharmonic Society orchestra.
Q: How did you first get involved with music?
Stephen: When I was 7 the violin teacher who came to my Oxfordshire
primary school had some vacancies. My best friend at the time decided to have
lessons - so I did as well. He gave up. I didn't!
Q: What is the best thing about being an orchestra leader?
Stephen: Having the responsibility for getting the strings to work
as a team. You have to lead from the front and always make every entry
positive. It's a great satisfaction when everyone plays together.
Q: What is the worst thing about being the leader of an orchestra?
Stephen: Having the responsibility for getting the strings to work
as a team. You have to lead from the front and always make every entry
positive. It's a great embarrassment when you enter wrong on a fortissimo
chord.
Q: Is anyone else in your family musical?
Stephen: I have no musical siblings. My parents enjoy listening but
don't play anything. The only musical relation I know of is my cousin, Colin
Riley, who is quite a successful composer.
Q: What has been your greatest success so far?
Stephen: Not giving up when I was eight and had to learn to use my
4th finger!
Q: What is your biggest regret?
Stephen: I suppose I must have one somewhere, but at the moment,
regretfully, I can't think of it...
Q: What has been your most favourite musical moment so far?
Stephen: There are too many to choose so I limited this to "over
the last 6 weeks" (even more limiting as I was on holiday for quite a lot of
it)! This gave me two favourites: listening to a recording of Arvo Pärt's
stunning Tabula Rasa again for the first time in about 15 years, and
playing Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra with the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra in this year's Proms.
Q: What has been your least favourite musical moment so far?
Stephen: Hard to pin down. Probably some moment when I played
something in completely the wrong place!
Q: What do you enjoy doing (apart from music making)?
Stephen: Birdwatching (and natural history in general), drawing
Celtic knot patterns and designing web sites.
Q: If you hadn't become a musician what would you be doing now, do
you think?
Stephen: Designing even more web sites!
Q: Something not many people know about you.
Stephen: When I was 12 I played 2 characters (a cat which sang and
played the violin and an old man who sang and played the guitar) in a school
production of a musical written by one of the school sixth formers, someone
who has since become well-known for his TV series' about music, and the theme
tunes he has written for programmes like Blackadder and Not the
Nine O'clock News - Howard Goodall.
Q:What question would you have liked us to ask you?
Stephen: "Do you know any good viola player jokes?"
Q: And what would your reply be?
Stephen: Yes.
- See also: a biographical note on Stephen Bingham.